Intermodal container building structures and methods

ABSTRACT

A building structure has a plurality of intermodal containers (ICs) attached together and substantially surrounding a central space. The ICs support roof elements, the roof elements together forming part of a roof for the building structure. Some of the ICs and the central space house functional equipment which is connected together at a deployment site to make a system capability. Some of the ICs walls together define an outer perimeter of the building structure while other IC walls facing into the central space have walls at least partially removed to allow access to the interior of the ICs from the central space.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENTS

The present application claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. provisional patent application No. 62078510, entitled “Intermodal container building structures and methods”, filed Nov. 12, 2014, and to U.S. provisional patent application No. 62153595, entitled “Intermodal container tank structure”, filed Apr. 28, 2015, both of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety and made part of the present application for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to methods of using intermodal containers (ICs) as special purpose buildings and to building structures produced using such methods. The invention has particular but not exclusive application to building structures for housing wastewater treatment systems.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Intermodal containers (ICs) have been used for living space, office space and industrial space. Improvements in the application of ICs to building structures for housing equipment are possible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the following figures are not drawn to common scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Advantages, features and characteristics of the present invention, as well as methods, operation and functions of related elements of structure, and the combinations of parts and economies of manufacture, will become apparent upon consideration of the following description and claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of the specification, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a building structure according to an embodiment of the invention, the building structure having a first perimeter profile.

FIG. 2 is horizontal sectional view of the structure of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view from the front and one side of a building structure according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view of a building structure according to another embodiment of the invention having a perimeter profile different from that of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 5 is a horizontal sectional view of a building structure according to a further embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a side sectional view of a roof formation for a building structure according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is an isometric view from above and one side of a building structure according to a further embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is an isometric view from above and the other side of the building structure of FIG. 7, but with roof removed.

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional view of a building structure according to a further embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a vertical sectional view of a building structure according to a further embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a side view of a building structure according to yet another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the building structure of FIG. 11 with roof removed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION INCLUDING THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Certain industrial systems such as water treatment systems may include complex industrial units which are usually manufactured and tested at a home site and then shipped to a deployment site. At the deployment site, a building is typically fabricated. The industrial units are then installed in the building and connected together to form a system. Typically, the system will be re-tested before being put into service at the deployment site.

It can be expensive to hire local labor with very varied expertise requirements at the deployment site and to have them follow a complex installation specification. It is therefore desirable to do as much as possible at the home site both in building and testing the system and to the extent possible in building a structure to house the system units. In this way, something close to a turnkey system can be shipped to the deployment site. It is desirable also that fabricated or partly fabricated sub-systems elements are in a condition enabling them to be easily transported to deployment sites.

Intermodal containers provide useful and readily deployable systems equipment housings. Properly reinforced, they can even be used as water holding tanks. In addition, ICs, being specifically designed for coordinated transportation, over road, rail and sea, make ideal structures for transporting sub-systems forming parts of a complex water treatment or like industrial plant.

A typical intermodal container (also called a shipping container, freight container, ISO container, hi-cube container, box, conex box and sea can) is a standardized reusable steel box used for the storage and movement of materials and products within a global containerized intermodal freight transport system. External lengths of containers, which each have a unique ISO 6346 reporting mark, vary from 8 feet (2.438 m) to 56 feet (17.07 m) with the most common lengths being 20 feet and 40 feet. Heights of containers compliant with ISO 6346 are from 8 feet (2.438 m) to 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 m). Widths are generally 8 feet.

Referring in detail to FIG. 2, there are shown six intermodal containers (IC1-IC6). The ICs are modified to contain a number of industrial plant units which are mounted in the ICs and connected together to make a water treatment system. In the particular example, the six modified intermodal containers (MICs) are arranged in a rectangular array at a site where the water treatment system operates. In this particular example, the MICs contain the following industrial units including required electrical and water connections to enable the system to operate:

-   -   IC-1: dissolved air flotation tank 66, float pump 68, solid pump         70, recycle pumps 72;     -   IC-2: pipe flocculator 73, equalization tank 74, sludge         thickening tank 76, dissolved air flotation effluent tank 78;     -   IC-3: multimedia filters 80, organo clay filters 82, sump tank         84;     -   IC-4: carbon filter tanks 86, hot water tank 88;     -   IC-5: filter press 90, dumpsters 92;     -   IC-6: bladder tank 94, chemical storage 96, safety station 98.

In operation, water to be treated is pumped into the equalization tank 74, and is then pumped through the pipe flocculator 73 where chemicals are added to the water to coagulate and flocculate solids as well as break oily emulsions in the water. The water is then fed into the dissolved air flotation tank 66 where tiny bubbles latch onto the solids in the water and float the dirt and solids up to the surface where it is skimmed off and transferred to the sludge thickening tank 76. Treated water from the dissolved air flotation effluent tank 78 is sent through multimedia filters 80, where finer particulate is captured to prevent premature plugging of solids in downstream organo clay and carbon media filters, respectively 82 and 86, which are used to remove hydrocarbons. The sludge is pressed at the filter press 90 to form a dry cake before being transported off site as waste.

The system of FIG. 2 is one exemplary embodiment of the invention. The MIC array may contain a different number of MICs and may contain different water treatment units in respective MICs. Alternatively, the MICs may be configured and provisioned for a different system application altogether: for example, an air treatment system, a catering system or a storage application. In addition, such a MIC array may have a mixed system application with, for example, one or more of the MICs configured to provide office space or washroom facilities.

The MICs are installed on a base 41 such as a cleared gravel base, a rig mat, or a concrete slab. In one embodiment, the MICs are simply stacked next to one another with the weight of the MICs maintaining the MICs in a preferred relative juxtaposition. In another embodiment, adjacent MICs are bolted together to maintain the MICs in their desired positions notwithstanding external buffeting from weather influences such as high wind and flooding, or from careless movement on the site of heavy vehicles.

The structure of FIG. 2 shows the MICs 10 positioned in a rectangular configuration with the outer perimeter also being rectangular other than at a main access region 32. However, as shown in the L-form building structure of FIG. 4, other laterally stacked configurations are possible with a correspondingly shaped rectilinear or polygonal outer perimeter. In both the FIGS. 2 and 4 embodiments, the outer perimeter is defined by a series of laterally adjacent MIC side walls 16 and end walls 18, adjacent walls being either coplanar with one another or extending orthogonally to one another. Attached to the walls 16, 18 forming the outer perimeter of the array is a layer of cladding 20 which may, for example, be wood, brick, aluminum, steel, vinyl, stone, stucco, cement or other suitable material. The cladding 20 can be configured as flat panel, lap siding, board and batten siding or other suitable configuration. The cladding can be selected to blend with cladding materials used on neighboring buildings and/or to conform to local zoning ordinances.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the MIC array is covered by a roof 22 which, like the underlying MIC array, can also be modular. The roof modules may include outer corner units 24 which overlie outer corner regions of the MIC array, inner corner units (not shown) to overlie inner or re-entrant corners of the MIC array such as corner 27 shown in the structure of FIG. 4, and linear spans 28 to cover lengths of the MIC array. In this respect, a roof outer corner unit 24 may have wings 25 extending somewhat beyond the inside corner where adjacent ICs meet and are joined (broken line). Similarly, a roof inner corner unit may have wings extending somewhat beyond the corner where underlying MICs meet and are joined at a re-entrant corner. Finally, as shown by FIGS. 1 and 2, a linear span 28 may have a length somewhat more or less than the length of a MIC covered by the linear span.

Through the use of suitable wall cladding and appropriately configured roof components and materials, the building to house the installed system at the deployment site is made aesthetically pleasing and/or coordinated with its surroundings.

As previously indicated, the invention has particular application to the installation at a deployment site of ICs that have been modified at a home site. At the home site, a number of ICs are assembled, the ICs being of appropriate length to accommodate system units to be installed in them. The system units are built or purchased and are mounted in the appropriate ICs. Unmodified ICs have access doors at one or both ends but for eventual system installation at the remote site, access may alternatively or additionally be through side walls 16 of the particular IC. Where such a side access is required, an access opening 14 is cut in the side wall 16 as shown in FIG. 1. System units which may be too large or unwieldy for installation in an IC are also built or acquired for integration into the system. At the home site, a connection matrix is put together to enable the assembled system units to be tested in their system configuration. The connection matrix typically includes power, control and monitoring circuits and, for the water treatment system example, water connections including piping and sealed ports in the walls of the ICs. Once it is performing satisfactorily, the system is partially disassembled so that it can be shipped as discrete MICs containing the installed system units together with a small number of oversized or unwieldy system units. The MICs offer a convenient method for shipping the main system elements in view of the MICs being of standard sizes for transportation on container ships and tractor trailers. For shipping, the side wall access openings 14 are blocked temporarily with wooden panels. The roof components 24, 28 may also be fabricated at the home site and transported to the deployment site or can alternatively be made and installed at the deployment site.

At the deployment site, an area of ground is graded and a concrete slab or like standing area is prepared. The MICs 10 are then arranged so that, except for a main door access region 32, they surround a central space 34. The arrangement is effectively a walled courtyard where the MICs 10 are the walls and the central space 34 is the courtyard. The MICs are arranged so that access openings 14 previously formed in MIC side walls 16 face into the courtyard 34 and some or all of the access openings are fitted with doors 15 to protect equipment housed inside the MIC. The doors 15 may be of any suitable form such as slide or hinged. Immediately adjacent corners of adjacent MICs, such as at locations 36, are fastened together using conventional horizontal twist locks (not shown). Mechanical interconnections between adjacent MICs 10 provide a more stable structure in the manner of a prefabricated building in comparison with an array of unconnected ICs.

Referring to FIG. 5, in an alternative embodiment, at inter-IC junctions between adjacent ICs, there is no side wall-to-end wall overlap. Instead, adjacent ICs 10 are positioned with their inner corners 38 closely adjacent to one another and bolted together. This creates a square corner space which is either left unfilled as shown at 40, but confined within extensions of the cladding 20 or is appropriately configured as a functional space accessible from the outside of the building structure: for example, a washroom facility 42 or corner storage 44. In one aspect of the invention, a MIC 10 is configured as a reinforced water-processing tank 46, the tank essentially spanning the full width of the MIC. For such a design, end access to the MIC is desirable. An end corner space provides a suitable location for an entry portal 48 to access the MIC tank 46, which may have a process end wall 49 of the form shown in copending US published patent application 20140224793 (Converted intermodal container for use as a water processing tank) filed Feb. 9, 2014. Such an entry portal can alternatively communicate with an inner end door in the end of a MIC. An alternative form of entry portal 50 may be configured at a junction between linearly aligned, adjacent MICs as shown in FIG. 5. Whether such a space is unfilled or functional, and whether located at a corner or in a side wall of the building structure, the spaces share a coordinated roof and cladding arrangement with the roof and cladding parts of the adjacent MICs.

A structure according to another aspect of the invention is constructed according to U.S. provisional patent application 62153595 (Intermodal container building structures and methods), the disclosure of which application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, ICs are stacked two deep. The vertically stacked ICs are fixed together to prevent any relative movement between the ICs of the top layer relative to the respective ICs of the underlying area. To effect this, vertical stacking connectors (not shown) are attached at each of the four corners of a lower IC of a stack and to the corresponding four corners of the upper IC of the stack. A standard vertical stacking connector can be used such as a connectors complying with international standard ISO 1161. At the lower level, a central space 34 (FIG. 8) is surrounded by an array of ICs, adjacent ICs being joined together at corner regions 99. Both the lower level ICs 97 and the regions 99 where they are joined are reinforced as described for example in U.S. provisional patent application 62153595 and U.S. published patent application 20140224791 which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. A liner (not shown) is mounted at inwardly facing IC side walls 16 flanking central space 34 so that the liner covers the ground in the central space. The supported liner provides a tank function, the tank provisioned and serviced similar to the MIC tank 46 of FIG. 5. In the particular example of FIGS. 7 and 8, a further reinforced IC 99 spans the structure to divide the courtyard space 34 into two. In such an arrangement, one space can be used as an interior tank and the other for other functions, or both central spaces can function as tanks. As in the previous embodiments, a roof and cladding are added and applied to protect the housed system units and to disguise and render aesthetic the industrial plant function of the structure.

In a modification of the FIG. 10 embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12, two layers 10, 97 of ICs surround a courtyard area 34. However, in this case, ICs 10 of the top layer are inverted to bring the bottom 29 of the upper ICs to the top 31 of the lower ICs. The bottom of an IC is generally constructed to be more robust than its top because, in a normal transport application, the bottom has to bear the full weight of the contents of the IC. Consequently, the inverted bottom structure provides a stronger base for attaching and supporting end parts of trusses 59. In the illustrated arrangement, side walls of lower ICs are reinforced and lined on the inside with waterproof liners. The lower ICs house stacks 51 of membrane filter plates so as to form IC membrane bioreactors tanks for cleaning wastewater.

At the system deployment site, roof components are erected over the IC array with a typical integrated roof component configuration being shown in FIG. 1 to the same scale as the IC array shown in FIG. 2. A central roof portion 52 extends over the courtyard part while sloping roof components 24, 28 are erected over the ICs 10. As shown in the embodiment of FIG. 3, the integrated roof components form a roof of mono-pitched or shed form, with the roof itself sloping upwardly from outer edges of the MIC wall to a height h as shown in FIG. 3. However, other configurations are possible. For example, the roof components can be other than mono-pitch and the central roof can be other than flat. The flat roof 52 is built over the central rectangular courtyard to span the distance between shed form roof components that are supported on the MICs on opposite sides and ends of the rectangular IC array. Because the flat roof 52 extends to a height that is the same as the highest level reached by the roof parts 24, 28 over the MICs, the flat roof cannot be seen from a position outside the structure except from a position higher than the top of the building walls. Any of the roof sections 24, 28 and 52 can be provided with hatches, such as hatch 65 in FIG. 1 so that units that have to be periodically cleaned, refurbished or replaced can be lifted and out of the applicable IC by crane.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, at the main access location 32, a roof component 54 is installed which covers an access door 56. This may be configured as an extension to neighboring parts of the roof as shown in FIG. 1 or can be narrower than the width of the roof components over the adjacent MICs, but still dimensioned and fabricated to blend aesthetically with the other roof components as shown in FIG. 3.

The illustrated configuration has particular value where the system equipment to be installed includes oversize or unwieldy industrial units which cannot easily be fitted into an IC. Such awkward equipment is instead mounted at a convenient location in the central courtyard in such a way that it can be integrated with other units housed in the surrounding ICs. Because, the courtyard is larger in area than any of the ICs and the roof section 52 over the courtyard is, in most embodiments, higher than the ICs, the courtyard makes an ideal location for housing the oversize units. For a water treatment system, such units might typically include large (or wide) tanks, clarifiers, dissolved air flotation units, media filters, filter presses and waste bins.

In a further roof form example illustrated in FIG. 6, a top roof truss 58 spans the full width of a structure embodying the invention and is joined to side trusses 60 at each end. The trusses are dimensioned such that they are supported as shown on telescopic posts 62 which are placed on, and supported by, compressively strong corner posts 64 that characterize a conventional IC container structure. The position, orientation and dimensions of strut elements (not shown) in the trusses 58, 60 are selected so that individual elements of the trusses are either in tension or compression along their length. The trusses may be planar trusses (as shown) or space trusses adapted for corner regions of the building structure.

In yet another roof form example illustrated in FIG. 9, trusses 59 are supported only by the inner side walls 17 of the ICs 10 between which the trusses extend. The IC sidewalls 17 bearing the weight of the trusses 59 are typically reinforced by any suitable method, including any of the methods described in published previously mentioned U.S. patent application 20140224791. IC tops 31 are generally constructed to be slightly domed to prevent rain water falling onto an IC from pooling. In the FIG. 9 structure, this means that some of the rainwater falling onto the IC will tend to collect at the junction region 33. To prevent water damage to the IC, a liner 27 is installed at the junction 33 so as to extend across the top 31 of the IC 10 and to extend up the end wall of the truss 59. The trusses can, as shown in FIG. 9, be configured for a flat roof. However, other roof forms are possible including a sloped roof resulting from using trusses 59 such as that shown in FIG. 10. In the FIG. 10 embodiment, an oversize truss 59 is used, so that its end portions 45 cover the ICs that are spanned and the extreme ends 47 extend beyond the outer side walls 19 of the spanned ICs to form eave regions 53.

The courtyard arrangement is an efficient structure because the MICs, together with the courtyard surrounded by them, provide a cost effective building in the sense that it is fabricated at a site away from the system deployment site using economies of scale provided by the IC fabrication industry. The courtyard arrangement can also be erected very quickly at the deployment site because there is very little site work required other than preparing the site, positioning the MICs and adding the roof components and surface finishing and applying the cladding. Overall, remote site installation of a system in this way using ICs previously modified at a home site offers relatively low installation cost, fast time from system commissioning to delivery, and less deployment site installation time.

While ICs have been used to house industrial sub-systems, the illustrated MIC wall and courtyard arrangement of the present invention can require less container space or fewer containers because the MIC walls can be packed tightly with system units. The reason for this is that space-taking access walkways inside the MICs are generally not required: instead access is obtained from the courtyard through suitable openings in the IC walls 16.

Other variations and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The embodiments of the invention described and illustrated are not intended to be limiting. The principles of the invention contemplate many alternatives having advantages and properties evident in the exemplary embodiments. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A building structure comprising a plurality of intermodal containers (ICs) attached together and substantially surrounding a central space, at least some of the ICs supporting roofing elements, the roofing elements forming part of a roof for the building structure, at least some of the ICs housing first functional equipment, the central space housing second functional equipment, at least some of the ICs having first walls together defining a substantial part of an outer perimeter of the building structure, at least some of the ICs having second walls at least partially removed to allow access to at least some of the first functional equipment from the central space.
 2. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, at least some of the first walls being IC side walls.
 3. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, at least some of the first walls being IC end walls.
 4. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, at least one of the ICs having a first roof part, the central space having a second roof part, the first and second roof parts being integral with one another.
 5. A building structure as claimed in claim 4, the first and second roof parts supported by a truss structure, the truss structure supported by a column, the column vertically aligned with and supported by a corner post of an IC.
 6. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of trusses extending between a pair of ICs, ends of the trusses supported on at least one side wall of the respective ICs, the supporting IC side walls reinforced to bear the weight of the trusses.
 7. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, the outer perimeter and the central space being one of rectilinear and polygonal.
 8. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, a contiguous pair of the ICs connected together and disposed at an angle to one another, the pair of ICs having a roof extending along the length of the ICs, a section of the roof over one of the pair of ICs disposed at said angle to a section of the roof over the other of the pair of ICs.
 9. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, at least one IC having an access way, the access way for access between a location exterior of the building structure and the central space, the access way including first and second openings in respective opposed side walls of said at least one IC, the first and second openings generally aligned with one another.
 10. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an entry section extending between an end wall of a first IC and an end wall of an adjacent second IC, the entry section providing access from outside the building structure to the first and second ICs.
 11. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, the first and second functional equipments configured as a water treatment system.
 12. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, the second functional equipment including a unit that is characterized by being at least one of greater in height than the height of the ICs and greater in width than the width of the ICs.
 13. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, at least one of the ICs having reinforced walls to enable the IC to be substantially filled with water without the IC rupturing, the building structure configured as a tank for holding water, the structure including a liner having a central part resting on the central space and peripheral parts mounted to side walls of ICs bounding the central space.
 14. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, at least some of the first walls having a cladding layer fixed thereto.
 15. A building structure as claimed in claim 1 having a first IC extending in a first direction, a second IC extending in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, the first IC having an end wall with a first end corner, the second IC having an end wall with a second end corner, the first and second end corners connected together, the first and second end walls forming two sides of a substantially square enclosed cubicle.
 16. A building structure as claimed in claim 1, at least one of the ICs inverted whereby a floor of the IC is above a roof of the IC in the building structure, the structure further comprising a roof truss supported on the floor.
 17. A method comprising, at a first site, mounting first functional equipment in at least some of a plurality of ICs, the first functional equipment connectable together to make at least a part of an industrial system, transporting the plurality of ICs to a second site, arranging the plurality of ICs at the second site substantially to surround a central space so that at least some of the plurality of ICs have first walls together defining at least a substantial part of an outer perimeter of a building structure, erecting roof elements on at least some of the ICs to form a roof thereon, and removing at least parts of second walls of some of the plurality of ICs to allow access to the interiors thereof from the central space.
 18. A method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising at the second site connecting the first functional equipment together to make said at least a part of the industrial system.
 19. A method as claimed in claim 17, further comprising at the second site installing second functional equipment in the central space and connecting the second functional equipment to the first functional equipment to make the industrial system.
 20. A method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising at the first site, before transporting the ICs containing the first industrial units and the second industrial units to the second site, connecting the first industrial units and the second industrial units together to make the industrial system, and testing the system. 